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Open letter to internees at Minidoka Relocation Center inviting them to a meeting in support of Minoru Yasui so that they can learn the facts of his case, ca. 1942

In 1942, Yasui was part of a noted "test case"in while he violated the curfew imposed on Japanese, German and Italian citizens by purposefully walking the streets of Portland, Oregon late at night and finally entering a police station and demanding he be arrested for violating the curfew. He was arrested and brought to trial in district court where the judge agreed the curfew order was constitutional based on the rights of American citizens but then stripped Yasui of his citizenship and sentenced him to a year a of imprisonment and a heavy fine. In 1943, Yasui's case was brought before the Supreme Court which overturned the previous ruling, releasing him from jail and sending him to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States government began enacting a series of measures against those with Japanese ancestry. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to designate "military areas" at their discretion, "from which any or all persons may be excluded." On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt signed Public Proclamation No. 1 establishing the Pacific coast and 100 miles inland as Military Area No. 1 and requiring that anyone with "enemy" ancestry evacuate. Through the spring of 1942, Japanese families began moving into temporary assembly centers, such as Camp Harmony in Puyallup, Washington, where they remained through the summer before moving to permanent internment camps.